“But, Julia, what are we going to do about Angela?” Peachy asked impatiently.

“I’m coming to that presently,” Julia answered.  “But before — I want to ask you a question.  Do you remember the big cave in the northern reef — the one we used to hide in?”

“Oh, I remember,” Lulu said, “perfectly.”

“Did you ever tell Honey about it?” Julia turned to her directly.

“No.  Why, we promised never to tell, didn’t we?  In case we ever needed a place of refuge — .”

“Have any of you ever told about it?” Julia turned to the others.  “Think carefully!  This is important.”

“I never have told,” Peachy said wearily.  “But about Angela — .”

“Have you, Chiquita?” Julia interrupted with a strange insistence.

“I have never thought of it from that day to this,” Chiquita answered.

“Nor I,” replied Clara.  “I’m not sure that I could go to it now.  Could you, Julia?”

“Oh, yes,” Julia answered eagerly, “I’ve — .”  She stopped abruptly.  “But now I want to talk to you, and I want you to listen carefully.  I am going to tell you why I think we should learn to walk.  It is, in brief, for Angela’s sake and for the sake of every girl-child that is born on this island.  For a long time, you will think that I am talking about other things.  But you must be patient.  I have seen this situation coming ever since Angela’s wings began to grow.  I could not hurry it — but I knew it must come.  Many nights I have lain awake, planning what I should say to you when the time came.  The time has come — and I am going to say it.  It is a long, long speech that I shall deliver; and I am going to speak very plainly.  But you must not get angry — for you know how much I love you and how much I love your children.

“I’m going back to our young girlhood, to the time when our people were debating the Great Flight.  We thought that we were different from them all, we five, that we were more original and able and courageous.  And we were different.  For when our people decided to go south to the Snowlands, the courage of rebellion grew in us and we deserted in the night.  Do you remember the wonderful sense of freedom that came to us, and how the further north we flew, the stronger it became?  When we found these islands, it seemed to us that they must have been created especially for us.  Here, we said, we would live always, free from earth-ties — five incorruptible air-women.

“Then the men came.  I won’t go into all that.  We’ve gone over it hundreds and hundreds of times, just as we did this afternoon, playing the most pathetic game we know — the do-you-remember game.  But after they came, we found that we were not free from earth-ties.  For the Great Doom overtook us and we fell in love.  Then came the capture.  And we lost our wings.”

She paused a moment.